How Beginners Can Get Started with Video Post-Production Using Basic Tools

Video post-production is often daunting for beginners. Not only may they be unsure where to start, but the video editing tools themselves can appear complicated as well. Because of that it is best for beginners to lean more heavily on basic tools when they are learning the ropes. It will allow them to get started more easily, and begin to familiarize themselves with the editor they’re using as well as the various tasks involved in the post-production stage.

With that in mind, there are a few basic tools that you should start with initially:

Split and trim

Basically the split and trim tools will let you remove any unwanted footage that you don’t need from your video. In most editors you will need to position a marker and ‘split’ the video to isolate segments that you want to remove, and can subsequently delete them.

Some editors may use a different approach, where you select the part of the video that you want to keep, and ‘trim’ everything else. Regardless, you should be able to remove all the parts you don’t want and can then start to arrange the footage that remains into your final video.

Automated color correction

Color correction can help you to fix the effects of poor lighting, and make the colors in your video look more vivid and closer to real life. In the majority of video editors you should be able to find tools to help automate it that could be classified as automated enhancement or white balance tools as well.

Essentially these tools will let you quickly and easily use color correction on your videos – often with nothing more than a single click. If you feel like it you can then further refine the color parameters and experiment with them so that you get a feel for what they do.

Crop

The crop tool is useful to help you adjust the frame of your video so that you can alter the aspect ratio, or remove parts that you don’t want. More importantly you can refocus the composition of your video while you crop it – using techniques such as the rule of thirds.

Generally to use the crop tool you’ll have to set a frame that denotes the new frame that you want for your video – and everything outside of it will be removed. Make sure the new frame’s aspect ratio is correct, and maybe turn on the grid to make it easier.

Audio tracks

Adding audio tracks to your video is a good way to include background music, a voiceover, or other sound effects. Normally all you’d need to do is import the audio file that you want to use, and then add it to the audio track in your editor’s timeline.

Using the cut and trim tools described above you can then edit the audio track to match the video – allowing it to fit better. If you want to take it a step further you can loop certain parts to control the pace and tone of the background music.

Make no mistake all of the tools listed here can be found in pretty much any video editor. That being said it would help if you select one that has a good reputation, and for example if you are looking for a video editing software for Mac you should try Movavi Video Editor for Mac.

The tools above will help you enhance and fix the quality of your videos, improve their composition, adjust the aspect ratio, trim out unwanted parts, compile the final cut, and add audio to it. In short they’re everything that any beginner needs to get started with video post-production.